Well, this was kind of expected. Nokia has finally decided to team up with Microsoft. So expect to see some new Nokia smartphones powered by Windows Phone 7 soon. So I guess Symbian’s fate is now more or less sealed. This certainly helps Microsoft as well. Nokia being the world’s largest mobile phone maker can surely help Microsoft compete better.

Android is now the world’s most popular smartphone platform. According to the recent data from Canalys, the mobile OS has surpassed Nokia/Symbian’s share of 30.6%. With an overall market share of 32.9% and 33.3 million unit shipments (for Q4 2010), Android is now second to none. Meanwhile Apple’s iOS is third on the list with 16% market share and 16.2 million shipments (for Q4 2010).

Firefox finally surpassed Internet Explorer in browser market share, in Europe. According to the data from StatCounter, Firefox currently holds a 38.11% of the European browser market, while IE holds 37.52%. Surprisingly, Firefox didn’t do much to achieve this. It is Google’s Chrome, that spiked up its market share from 5.06% to 14.58% in just a year. Basically, Chrome took most of the share previously hold by IE.

Selling millions of iPhones and iPads isn’t enough for Apple. After a remarkable success in selling some of the most popular gadgets of all time, the company has just received yet another distinction. Today, Apple is worth over $302 billion in market value, surpassed only by Exxon Mobil ($376 billion).

New York Times recently reported that Facebook has received an investment of $500 million from Goldman Sachs ($450 million) and a Russian firm ($50 million). Goldman also estimates the world’s largest social network to be worth at least $50 billion. This clearly makes Facebook worth much more than eBay (Worth: $38 billion), Yahoo (Worth: $22 billion) and Time Warner (Worth: $36 billion).